Walter Munn

"Every chess enthusiast in Scotland owes a debt of gratitude to this quiet, selfless, talented man."

Walter had a lifelong interest in chess, and his first club was Cathcart. He joined Busby and Clarkston in 1963, playing a key part in helping to re-form it as Giffnock and Clarkston Chess Club.

He was also a founder member of the Scottish Correspondence Chess Association, sometimes pondering moves well into the night so that he could send his replies promptly to equally dedicated opponents.

With the imminent demise of Busby & Clarkston Chess Club in the early Sixties, he had the vision to develop the growth of chess in his own area by forming a new club in the leafy suburbs of Clarkston in 1965. The new club, Giffnock & Clarkston, met in Rhuallan House. Walter's commitment, organisational skills, and enthusiasm quickly raised the club's status to that of one of the biggest and best in Scotland.

Walter still managed to play competitive chess himself in those days, and at a level that made him runner-up in the strong Club Championships of 1964, 1965 and 1971.

He organised internal club tournaments, team fixtures, the Renfrewshire County Championship, the Renfrewshire Open Championship, and the West of Scotland Championship.

In 1969, Walter was elected president of the Scottish Chess Association, a post which he held with distinction in his characteristically modest and unassuming manner.

His organisational skills were called on to the full during one of the most challenging periods in the game's history in Scotland. Because of an antiquated structure in the Scottish Chess Association, that meant that each year a different club took the top posts in the organisation, Dr Fairhurst decided to take control of the SCA in 1959 and changed the rules to declare himself president and appoint his own office-bearers.

By and large, this worked out better than the muddle that had gone before. Unfortunately, Dr Fairhurst also had a reputation for ruling the game with more iron in his fist than was needed in the design of his beloved Tay Bridge. Things came to a head during the selection of the Scottish team to play in the 1968 Lugano Olympiad, when Dr Fairhurst refused to allow one of the chosen players to join the team. There was a very public row that led to several resignations from the board and the split from the governing body of Junior Chess.

Dr Fairhurst was then told that his time as president had now reached an end. But since there were no elections for the top post, it fell on Fairhurst himself to appoint his successor. Several candidates made the daunting trip to Torr Hall, his imposing mansion in Bridge of Weir, to be personally vetted. One candidate stood out: Walter Munn, the quiet-spoken Glasgow chartered accountant with a gift for administration.

On assuming the presidency, Walter proved to be a breath of fresh air for the game and a figure of respect who was popular with the grassroots. He immediately set about democratising the SCA with a proper board structure and annual elections and plotted a true course of success for chess in Scotland, sacrificing his own playing career in favour of organisation.

Not only did he bring about some much-welcome administration and financial rigour to the SCA, he was also the key figure in many monumental improvements that took place in through the Sixties and Seventies, such as the annual Scottish Championship and Glasgow Congresses. Along with the unstinting help and support of his own family and a dedicated team of officials and workers, he created such a special atmosphere at these tournaments - particularly the flagship event of the Scottish Championship with the popular decision to use the alternate venues of Troon and St Andrews.

The highlight of his presidency came in 1984 when the SCA, one of the world's oldest chess associations, celebrated its centenary year. Walter built around him an able team that more than met the challenge for that demanding year. The main features of the celebrations were the staging of the World Microcomputer Championships in Glasgow, the Scottish Centenary Grandmaster Tournament in Troon, and the official visit to Glasgow of the then world champion, Anatoly Karpov.

The Fischer boom of the late Sixties and early Seventies, with more and more people worldwide taking up chess, coincided with him being secretary of the Glasgow Congress, the biggest and most popular tournament in the country at the time, which supported Scotland's only international event. It was through Walter's perseverance that a similar-styled junior international was added to the congress.

Back at Giffnock & Clarkston, he added a large junior feeder club where he developed and wrote all of the teaching aids. He also put in many years of dedicated input to local schools in his area. One of those, Ashcraig, was a special needs school for the disabled. His work there caught the eye of Peter McCann, Lord Provost of Glasgow, himself disabled, who offered Walter the services of his office and the facilities of Glasgow City Chambers to set up the world's first junior international chess tournament for the disabled.

Chess prospered rapidly during Munn's inspired leadership and he became a father figure to a whole generation of players. All good things must come to an end, and in 1985, on announcing his resignation a year in advance to culminate in the end of the centenary year celebrations, he relinquished his high-profile post to become the first person to be made the honorary president of the SCA.

Every chess enthusiast in Scotland owes a debt of gratitude to this quiet, selfless, talented man. Walter's steady guiding hand at the helm encouraged and enabled other talented and dedicated organisers to undertake these and many other events, and the Munn home provided warm hospitality for a large number of chess masters and grandmasters over this golden age.

A self-effacing character with a wickedly dry sense of humour, it was impossible not to like - and be liked by - Walter. He got on well with everyone. Despite all the many events, functions and committees he was involved in throughout his distinguished chess career, no-one ever had a bad word to say about him - they would accept his rulings (always invariably right) and listen carefully to his wise council.

Nobody has made a greater contribution to the Scottish chess scene than Walter Munn.

Acknowledgements

The Scotsman of April 10th, 2001 - Walter Munn by JOHN B HENDERSON

Gerald Bonner - Walter Munn: 19 November 1931 - 31 March 2001